Whether you’re communicating a general safety message, leading a safety meeting, or conducting safety training or safety culture training, one of the best ways to reinforce your message is to use a prop or other visual aid. In fact, it can mean the difference between your audience retaining only 5% of your message, or up to 80% of your message!

We’ve been looking at ways to build and enhance our leadership presence to influence safety culture development while communicating safety, and here’s another tip. [password=”ask-tell”]

Use a Prop or Visual Aid

It’s well known that the use of a prop or other visual aid can help you better engage people in safety communication, but just how drastic is its impact on comprehension and retention? As it turns out, the impact is significant.

If I simply tell you something, apart from using any visual aids, you’re likely to remember only about 5% of that message once you leave the meeting and are back on the job.

Think about the last “death by PowerPoint” safety training or safety culture training you attended. Maybe it was an online page-turner type of training where you read paragraphs of text about safety compliance. Maybe it was a live, instructor-led class where the trainer simply read the slide to you while you followed along. How much of that training do you remember now?

If I tell you something while at the same time showing you a visual aid, you’re likely to remember up to 35% of that message once you leave the meeting and are back on the job.

Think about the last time someone showed you a picture or a diagram to illustrate what they were explaining to you. It’s very likely you can recall many details of that message, and the reason is likely due to the visual aid you saw. Pictures, illustrations, drawings, diagrams and 3D objects provide a context (or “setting”) for the words you’re hearing, and that helps to drive that information into long-term memory.

Now, if I tell you something, show it to you, and then give it to you to try out for yourself, you’ll likely remember upwards of 80% of my message. Why? Because you’re using multiple senses in the process–not just hearing, but seeing and touching as well. The more senses you can bring into the communication process, the more of my message you’ll understand and remember.

Let’s say I’m trying to communicate how to tell when a safety harness is no longer serviceable. I could simply write it all out in paragraph form, throw it in a PowerPoint presentation, project it on a screen and turn around a read it to you. But if I do it that way you’ll only retain about 5% of that knowledge tomorrow (and, no, paragraphs of text on a PPT slide don’t count as a visual aid!).

If, instead, I have a safety harness in my hands while verbally explaining to you how to tell whether it’s serviceable or not, and I’m actually showing you the places where it’s damaged, you’ll retain up to 35% of that knowledge tomorrow.

And if I’m telling you about it safety harness serviceability, showing you the safety harness, and then handing that harness to you and asking you to tell me whether or not it’s serviceable, you’ll retain up to 80% of that knowledge.

Using props and other visual aids while communicating safety adds value to your message, gets better engagement from your audience, and increases their understanding and retention of the subject. Use them freely to reinforce your message, your safety training or safety culture training, and their safety awareness.

That’s all for this edition of Recordable INSIGHTS. Be sure to view the associated video below to learn more about these tips. Until next time.

Tip: to view this video in HD, just click the play button, then click the “settings” (cogwheel) icon at the bottom right of the video window and change the quality to 720p.

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About the Author

Eric Svendsen, Ph.D., is Principal and lead change agent for safetyBUILT-IN, a safety-leadership learning and development organization. He has over 20 years experience in creating and executing outcomes-based leadership development and culture change initiatives aligned to organizational goals, and he personally led the safety-culture initiatives of a number of client organizations that resulted in “best ever safety performance” years for those companies.

Testimonials

“I have attended other safety workshops in the past, but none has ever laid out the skills building and leadership qualities like this one. I was fully engaged the entire two days. I can’t wait to practice these skills.” Phil Laudolff | General Mills

“The safetyBUILT-IN team provided our employees with a perspective on how to view safety such that they want to be involved in leading safety in the organization. The program gave us simple, understandable tools and techniques for leading and coaching not only safety but every other discipline we deal with in the work environment. I… Read more ““Changed Our Mindset About Safety””

“Being a manager of safety comes with many challenges. I have learned over time that the traditional style of safety compliance training, such as videos, generic presentations, etc., may not be totally effective for ensuring our employees understand the pertinent information presented, and how to utilize that information as part of their every day life.… Read more ““Gives Employees a New Way of Thinking …””

“Strong and clear leadership course that brings practical and effective methods to identify opportunities, resolve them, coach, and drive results. Clear, meaningful subject matter, and fantastic materials. Love the ‘do’ focus of the course and the ongoing feedback–and the facilitator actually practices the methods during the course! Informs the mind, but superbly connects to the… Read more ““One of the Best Experiences …””

“Facilitator was one of the best, if not the best presenter and speaker that I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. I believe this training is important and pertinent enough to allocate the appropriate needed expenditures to ensure that ALL SUPERVISORS AND LEAD PEOPLE from every location in the pipeline attend. I was… Read more ““All Leaders Need to Attend””

“What stood out to me the most was that coaching based on core values is more effective than citing compliance to policies. Every supervisor and manager should attend!” Pat Hodgson, SHE Manager | BAE Systems

“This was one of the best leadership workshops that I’ve been to in my career (simple and effective tools)! It will help drive safety as a core value. I think it will really make people better leaders as a whole. That will drive our overall business in the right direction, starting with safety.” Shawn Myers,… Read more ““One of the Best Leadership Workshops””

In my 25 years of EHS work, I have never seen so much positive response from a Safety program. Typical responses identify the fact that this is so much more than Safety Training – it is Leadership training that will help them in all aspects of their employee engagement efforts. I believe, with continued leadership… Read more ““Transformational””

“Outstanding workshop! It was far more than a safety meeting. This will have an impact on our operation. I am anxious to send my next level of management at the next opportunity.” Joe Gednalske, Director of Product Development

Categories

“This was one of the best leadership workshops that I’ve been to in my career (simple and effective tools)! It will help drive safety as a core value. I think it will really make people better leaders as a whole. That will drive our overall business in the right direction, starting with safety.” Shawn Myers,… Read more ““One of the Best Leadership Workshops””

“I have attended other safety workshops in the past, but none has ever laid out the skills building and leadership qualities like this one. I was fully engaged the entire two days. I can’t wait to practice these skills.” Phil Laudolff | General Mills

“Facilitator was one of the best, if not the best presenter and speaker that I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. I believe this training is important and pertinent enough to allocate the appropriate needed expenditures to ensure that ALL SUPERVISORS AND LEAD PEOPLE from every location in the pipeline attend. I was… Read more ““All Leaders Need to Attend””

“What stood out to me the most was that coaching based on core values is more effective than citing compliance to policies. Every supervisor and manager should attend!” Pat Hodgson, SHE Manager | BAE Systems

“Strong and clear leadership course that brings practical and effective methods to identify opportunities, resolve them, coach, and drive results. Clear, meaningful subject matter, and fantastic materials. Love the ‘do’ focus of the course and the ongoing feedback–and the facilitator actually practices the methods during the course! Informs the mind, but superbly connects to the… Read more ““One of the Best Experiences …””

“Being a manager of safety comes with many challenges. I have learned over time that the traditional style of safety compliance training, such as videos, generic presentations, etc., may not be totally effective for ensuring our employees understand the pertinent information presented, and how to utilize that information as part of their every day life.… Read more ““Gives Employees a New Way of Thinking …””

“Outstanding workshop! It was far more than a safety meeting. This will have an impact on our operation. I am anxious to send my next level of management at the next opportunity.” Joe Gednalske, Director of Product Development

In my 25 years of EHS work, I have never seen so much positive response from a Safety program. Typical responses identify the fact that this is so much more than Safety Training – it is Leadership training that will help them in all aspects of their employee engagement efforts. I believe, with continued leadership… Read more ““Transformational””

“The safetyBUILT-IN team provided our employees with a perspective on how to view safety such that they want to be involved in leading safety in the organization. The program gave us simple, understandable tools and techniques for leading and coaching not only safety but every other discipline we deal with in the work environment. I… Read more ““Changed Our Mindset About Safety””